


I'll be there

by Mis_Shapes



Series: Christmas Bits & Pieces [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxiety, Christmas Fluff, Comfort, Depression, Holiday Blues, kinda minimal throbb, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 05:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12928083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mis_Shapes/pseuds/Mis_Shapes
Summary: A short something written for the AUideas Advent Calendar - I Want To Dry Your Tears AUTheon goes to comfort Jeyne on receiving a text.





	I'll be there

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: 
> 
> I Want To Dry Your Tears AU 
> 
> Winter is always a hard time for Character A, so Character B isn’t completely surprised when they get a text from Character A, asking if Character B can come over. Character A supplies the blankets and food; all Character B needs to bring is their own warm body to snuggle.

When the phone vibrates in his pocket the immediate reaction is ingrained into him. The response is to silence it without looking. Whoever it is he has no interest in speaking to anyone on it. Both the guilt and the anxiety over the call weighs heavily on his chest as he watches people shopping in the ‘January’ sales that started on Boxing Day through the fogged up window. When he can finally bear to face who might have called he pulls the mobile from his pocket.

Missed Call: Jeyne Poole

Taking a deep breath, he leans over the woman beside him to press the bell on the bus, this is something he can’t bear to do while crowded and he makes assumptions about how the day is about to go. She grumbles a little in the way some do. What’s he supposed to do? Wait until she’s gotten off to get up? 

“Thanks, mate,” he tells the bus driver.

The icy cold air hits him as he steps off the bus, fingers becoming numb from holding his phone in the wind. Robb had put some touch screen gloves in his pocket at Christmas, but they were so hideous he wouldn’t even consider wearing them, despite being a sweet thought. The wind always channelled unpleasantly down the main road.

JP: Sorry

The three little dots flicker and then disappear on and off as she considers whether or what to say until Theon interprets the silence.

TG: I’ll be there soon.

The Christmas lights hanging across the street twinkle and flash merrily but nothing about the period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve feels merry when you feel alone. Sure, there will be those who think to invite you on actual holidays, but it makes it all the more painful on the days between when you’ve been around people with their close loved ones. People are prone to forgetting when the initial excitement and enthusiasm drains. He makes a quick stop in a coffee shop before jumping on a bus in another direction.

All of Jeyne’s curtains are drawn when he arrives, and he hesitates halfway down the jennel between the houses, preparing himself. The air inside is stuffy when he lets himself in, and the kitchen counters are piled with crockery, but the state inside the house is by no means the worst he’s ever seen it. 

Jeyne lies in a foetal position on the leather sofa, red eyed and nosed, and surrounded by used tissues. She turns to look at him and smiles weakly, relieved to see him, as he hands her the hot chocolate he knows she likes and sits beside her, tugging her up into his embrace. Sniffling, she exhales heavily and slumps into his warmth. There they sit until he feels her breathing settle, only then does gently lift her side to climb out and pop a pillow beside her, covering her up with a blanket knitted by Sansa. It was her favourite purely because it had been made by her friend, the lugs, accidental stitch increases and decreases, and its general wonky appearance made it all the more special because it was made with love.

They need not say anything; each other’s presence is enough. It had been painful at first, a reminder of things he’d rather forget, seeing her, but sometimes it felt like only they could fully understand each other. No need to explain, no need to listen to well meant but unhelpful comments or advice. Jeyne agonised over letting anyone into her house and the worse she dipped into her isolation the worse she felt and the worse the disarray of the house became. It was a vicious circle. There had been those who had been concerned about the dependence and the mental strain of carrying the other.

“You don’t have to…” Jeyne mutters as he sets about tidying the room a little.

He smiles and kisses her on the forehead. “I want to.”

The space is a little less suffocating when he’s done, there is space to breath, and the opening on the curtains and cracking of the window lightens the air. She squints a little as the sunlight streams in.

“You’ll feel better for it,” he laughs.

“I know…”

“What are we going to watch?” Theon asks, pulling out the drawer to the tv stand and rifling through the DVDs.

“Something rubbish.”

He smirks, having expected this response, but what she wants it hard to come by. What she wants is something with minimal strife.

“Right… I’m going out on a limb here, but you know you’ll be full of the warm fuzzies by the end of it,” he says as he waves a DVD at her.

“… yeah, alright,” she says apprehensively, “if you’re willing to watch it you must be pretty convinced it’s a good idea, but if I cry it’s your fault.”

“You always cry, you’ll find anything to cry at. You cry at ALL the Christmas adverts,” he teases as he pops it in the drawer, crouching in front of the tv until Love Actually pops on.

“That’s not fair! That’s what they’re made for,” she objects while lifting up the blanket for him to get in under it.

“So is Love Actually!”

“Hmmm, I suppose you’re right,” she concedes while opening the bag of popcorn he hands her from the cupboard.

When a knock at the door sounds half way through the film she freezes at the thought who might be there and looks to Theon to get him to go, but the knock had been courtesy, and the guests enter without invitation. 

Sansa’s overly cheery voice calls in from the kitchen, “we brought pizza and ice cream. Shall I pop the kettle on?”

“Yeah!” Theon shouts back.

Jeyne looks up at him in her confusion. He ruffles her soft brown hair as he pulls her head back into his chest.

“I told Robb where I was, and they were worried about you,” he explains, feeling the muscles in her face move as her lips tug into a smile.

Robb approaches Theon and brushes the hair that covers his eye back behind his ear, leaning in for a soft kiss.

“You taste like chocolate,” he tells Theon and turns to Jeyne, “sorry, Jeyne, he’s just irresistible.”

“Pssshh,” Theon pushes Robb out of the way of the TV, hiding a grin over Robb’s affection and rolling his eyes as he sits at their feet, “you’re just like a dog, you know that?”

Now when the tears come they come from both the Starks and Jeyne. He laughs and teases them over their soft hearts as tears stream down their faces, spoons of ice cream in hand. Perhaps it might have been overwhelming had it been just he and Jeyne supporting each other, but then it wasn’t.


End file.
